A Water Leak, A Love Tree and a Cake Mix

 AJ, AZ  Our weather continues to be beautiful - highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s. But we are in desperate need of rain which is NOT in our forecast.

Great friends make this world a better place and Paul is one of the best. He is always willing to help me out when I run into a problem. This time it's a soft water thingie. I have one that quit working and I thought I could get by without having soft water. That is not a good thing with our really hard water. After I had to replace my hot water heater, I knew it was time to soften up that water. 

But before he started replacing the Water Boss, we had breakfast at the Bisbee Breakfast Club in Mesa. I did not know there were these restaurants anywhere but in Bisbee, AZ. It just became our very favorite place to have breakfast. 

And then the work began. I'm pretty useless so Paul was on his own.  He successfully removed the old one and started to hook up the new one. Turned the water on and oops - leaking around the connections. They need to be replaced. He also discovered that the hose I bought would not fit through the hole in the container the Water Boss sits in. So he is going to have to enlarge that. 

At this point he had been working for several hours and it was time to call it quits for today. He'll finish up next week.  

But before he quit, he was able to clear the clog in my shower drain. Little does he know, I'm starting another to-do list. Not really, hopefully. 

Winter seems to have arrived here in the Valley. We are under a freeze warning for the next two nights with lows at 33 degrees. Daytime temps in the upper 50s or lower 60s but at least we're not buried under snow and ice.

I stayed in most of the week. Trying to stay warm. Had a doctor's appointment.  Seems we do a lot of that as we get older. The doctor's staff decided they didn't feel like taking the Christmas tree down, so the made it into a love tree.

Paul and I went to lunch at Los Gringos and afterwards he finished hooking up my soft water. Of course, nothing ever goes easily or right the first try or the second try. After Paul left I discovered that there was a leak coming from somewhere. So Paul made another trip to my place and worked his magic on it. Thank you beyond words, Paul. 

Our park has been contributing to the local food bank for years. Jim and I took over the program several years ago and I continue to be in charge of it. This month I decided we should do something different. We decided to make birthday kits to donate.  These kits consist of an aluminum cake pan, a box cake mix, frosting, a can of soda, napkins and candles. This is my table.

If you're wondering why a can of soda, there is a reason for that.  As most of you are aware, eggs are in short supply and the price has sky rocketed. Even the food bank can't collect eggs anymore and the people they help cannot afford to buy them. So I found this recipe that requires only a cake mix and a can of soda. No oil or eggs.

I actually made one of the cakes to give people a chance to see what they tasted like. It tasted really good and was very light. I made a vanilla cake with a can of 7UP. 

On line you can find a chart that suggests what sodas to match with which cake mix. I included it here but it's kind of hard to see. 

My two favorite guys.